To be Invisable
by Rinfanalltheway
Summary: I do everything that I can just so she can see me, but she never does. Why is it the one I love always chooses someone that could never deserve her instead of the one that would do anything for her? 1st NaruHina 2ndSakura POV 3rd wraps it all up. complete
1. You can't see me

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything in the series. I wish I did, but I don't.

Deep in the nexus of training fields hid a quivering boy; his shoulders shuddered violently with each breath inside the hole away from the hell that was his life. His eyes were red from withheld tears, only his sheer willpower kept him from reducing himself to a blubbering fool. 'I won't cry, never again. I've cried enough for myself already…' he told himself, whipping furiously at the saltwater that begged to fall with his orange sleeve.

"She chose him… after all this… _him_" Naruto's usual cheerful tone abandoned for a strained and scratchy mockery version of it. His mind lingered on the memory of Sakura throwing any and every object she could get her hands on at him not but ten minutes ago. Having Sakura beat the living shit out of him wasn't something uncommon, but usually he'd have done something to at least sanctify this to some degree; but not this time. No all he'd done was stick his life on the line to try and rescue some fucking bastard that obviously didn't want to be here, all because the girl he liked came crying to him to save the bastard.

Her little Sasuke-kun left Konoha earlier that day and had made it quite clear his opinion of her, he chose the sound but she chose him. After all these years of his neglect, abuse, and cold natured attitude she still found it in her heart to care for him, forgive him, and even wait for him. But when Naruto, who's only tried to show how much he cared for her and what he'd do for her, does one thing against her and she showers him with a hail of medical equipment. All because he couldn't keep some stupid promise to bring back the same bastard that held his affection's heart and that proceeded to step on it as many times as humanly possible. She could love this beast that wouldn't care if she lived or died and treats her below the dirt he walks on, but not the boy who'd do anything to just get a 'good job Naruto' or just a warm smile. Even try to bring back the one person between him and love.

A second wave of salty drops of his pains rolled into his eyes when the vault of memories swung open and proceeded to remind him of every time she'd ever hurt him. From the times in the academy when she'd throw him halfway across the room just to hear Sasuke's insulting her better to when she'd cried that Sasuke got away instead of worrying about the boy wearing a full body cast from trying to bring the one she loved to her. Particularly painful ones seemed to burn their images along his eyes; when he'd disguised himself as Sasuke and heard her bash him even more, during Kakashi's test when she ran off to save the Uchiha and had left him hanging from a tree, various times during the D rank missions when she flaunted over Sasuke instead of helping him deal with vicious cats or just leaving him to do all the work, when the fight with Haku was over and all she could ask about was Sasuke despite the needles sticking out of the blonde, each time she sided with Sasuke on what they should do while they were in the forest of death which in the end basically ended up with Naruto doing grunt work while the Uchiha 'supervised', when Naruto had been going up against Neji in the third round of the chunnin exams all Sakura could worry about was when Sasuke was getting there, and the most painful of all was the memory when Naruto had dealt with both Kabuto, and Orochimaru to get the great healer Tsunade to help save Sasuke and when all was said n' done Sakura never gave him so much as a thanks; seeing as she was too busy crying over the recovering Uchiha.

No matter how long he sat there thinking he couldn't remember a single time she'd ever acknowledged his existence other that to punch him. She'd always push him aside to be with the bastard that now happened to be amongst the missing-nin, and was to be killed on sight for treason. Though for some god unknown reason she could forgive him of those hundreds of thousands of times he'd hurt her (and now the village), and the first time Naruto can't give her every tiny thing she wants she's trying to finish what the bastard started. It made no sense!

His heart felt like someone had run a freezing blade through it; the pain in his chest was so much he almost wished he would die. A snap of realization broke that train of thought in an instant, he hadn't wished for death since he was a small child, ever since Iruka became the first to acknowledge him he'd been shielded from the pain. It scared him that this girl could hurt him this much and he still wished nothing more than to see her smile and know it was for him, especially since it reminded him to much of her own obsession with Sasuke.

"I'm invisible…" he said to himself with a sigh. 'The only ones that acknowledge my life are either sorry for me or see themselves in me; none of them cared for me' he thought to himself. "No one cares for me, and I'm invisible…" he spoke barely over a whisper, if Sakura couldn't find a way to care about him after all he'd done for her; then no one could.

"I… I…" a weak voice sounded from just outside the barrier of leaves. Naruto jumped at the sound with surprise, and tried to bury himself further into the plant. "I c-c-can s-s-s-s-se-ee you…" the voice spoke.

Curiosity flooded the demon vessel, pulling at the only thing between him and this person that seemed as if it cared for him. Halfway through the abundance of leaves he thought that this person must be speaking to someone else, some who wasn't a loveless freak, but hope refused to allow him to quit. When the last of the leaves broke from their post Naruto was gazing at the most beautiful set of eyes he'd ever seen before, the two pearls seemed to dance with the sunlight that now slipped through the ceiling of leaves every now and then, "…Hinata?"

The Hyuga heiress turned a deep shade of red at her name, and hid herself slightly behind a nearby tree, but made no motion to escape further. "N-n-naruto-kun…"

Of course! Hinata never showed any form of pity, and had even given him a pep-talk before the third round of the chunnin exam. Hell she'd told him she admired him and how much he'd affected her over the years. He looked back at her reddened face and broke down. He grabbed her sleeve and buried his face into her shoulder while sobbing silently.

Hinata was obviously surprised at the gesture, and completely off guard at what to do. She eventually just placed her hand on his back and let him cry there. She only hopped that her efforts could some how take away some of the pain. The two of them sat like that for over an hour, neither one able to find the right words to say. When the stillness finally started to get to Naruto he decided to go ahead and break the silence, "I'm sorry…"

"F-for w-what?" Hinata's eyes drifted to the head on her shoulder, his face was screwed up in a rigid posture.

"For all of this, wasting so much of your time, acting like a baby, especially since you told me that you always looked up to me because I would always stand back up when someone pushed me down. Now here I am broken down, I must how ruined what you thought of me…" his voice was that of a child who had to admit to breaking his mother's favorite antique, something he was very out of practice at doing.

Hinata was taken back at his reasons. Laying a hand on his hair she whispered softly into his ear, "Y-you could n-never ruin my image of you… we're all human N-naruto-kun."

The blonde smiled into her arm, not the face splitting grin he wore as a mask but a true smile that he rarely wore. Without a second thought he spilled the story to her, from every thing he'd done for the pink haired kunoichi to what she'd done earlier that day. At the end Hinata was on the brink of tears herself, here she was with the boy she'd liked ever since the academy days and now the one he'd liked since then had shattered not only his heart but his confidence. Bitch gonna die!

"It just hurt so much… I'm used to her getting mad at me for every little thing," his voice was still weak, but it was quickly regaining its stable tone. "I guess I never really noticed but it hurt so much to know that she was so focused on someone who doesn't deserve her that she couldn't even see me. It just hurt so much Hinata-chan," his eyes threatened to release a fresh batch of tears at this.

"Yea… it does…" it was almost humorous that he'd said that to her, but then again this was Sakura that he was talking about; she'd always been smarter, prettier, and cuter than her. What could she expect?

One of the common beliefs about Naruto is that he's completely dense when dealing with anyone, which for the most part is true, but not this time; he heard the pain in her voice when she replied. Turning the gears in his head he sought an answer to why she was so upset, maybe she had the same problem? But who was the one she was having trouble with? Shino seemed to have no interest with anyone, and Kiba couldn't hold one person in his heart for more than three minutes before finding another, and Hinata never interacted with anyone else that much; just her teammates, her family, and himself. The little light bulb that had sadly been neglected during Naruto's life turned on with a brilliant light, if he thought he felt bad about ruining the image that Hinata held him in, then this was ten times worse,, knowing he'd just brought his love troubles to her. "I'm sorry Hinata…"

"Y-you h-haven't done anything N-naruto-kun."

Naruto brought his face out of the damp material of Hinata's jacket, his face now shown with his usual determined look, "Yes I did. All I've done is chase after Sakura like a blind fool; I never once saw the one who was always looking at me." Hinata's face reached a new shade of red. He continued on, "I know I never saw you for who you really were. Instead of Hinata the teammate; I should have seen you as Hinata, the woman," during the declaration he'd managed to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her close to him in a gentle hug. Hinata could have died there in his arms and would have been the happiest girl ever; sitting there listening to him was her version of heaven. "I have no right to say this, but I promise on my nindo; that I will see you from now on," he leaned in and pressed his lips softly to her cheek.

Hinata's heart leapt from her chest to her throat, every fiber of her being was jumping with joy, "N-naruto-kun…" 'Damn my stutter,' she thought angrily, 'it always insists to stay no matter how hard I try to rid myself of it.' "Th-thank you."

"No problem Hinata-chan" again he leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek, but the violet haired kunoichi had other plans, bringing him into a fierce kiss despite her shyness.

"Hey Hinata-chan…" began the blue eyed ninja when the need for air forced them to part. She raised an eyebrow to silently ask what it was. "You remember right before my fight with Neji? When you gave me that little pick-me-up talk." Hinata nodded, confusion slowly leaked into the violet pools of her eyes. "Well I need to tell you I was wrong when I told you, that it's people like you I like; I should have said it was _you_ I like."

Hinata broke into a grin that threatened to split her face, "I like you to Naruto-kun."

A/N: Ok so I've noticed I have over 300 hits, yet only 5 reviews. That makes me sad that either that many people started to read this and just quit, or they just didn't like it enough to acknowledge it. I'd like to thank Soccerchick1551, hinatauzumakimi3, SunMoonNeko, and shadow-red0 for the encouraging reviews; and a special thanks to fionartan for the constructive critisim, as well as pointing out the canon of the story, cudos to you. But yes after re-reading the fic i agreed that the 'I love you's at the end, though indearing, had to go. So i replaced it with a less lovey-dovey-ness but closer to accurate. I'm thinking I might write a second chapter from Sakura POV, showing the reason she did all this. Well that's about it, I want to thank my reviewers again and hope that those of you reading this and any other thing I may post enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Rin


	2. To be human

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the many characters in the Manga/Anime.

**WARNING:** This chapter is Sakura POV. It will show her in a different light; she's still a bitch, only you get to see why she acted as she did. Not that she's right, but she at least has a reason (think of it this way, if someone comes up to you and punches you, wouldn't you feel a tad bit better knowing they did that cause they dislike you for something you did/said instead of just doing that cause the felt like it?) anyways, this chapter is not for the die hard Sakura must die fans, i'm sorry but my muse beat the shit out of me and told me to write this anyways, so without further to do... THE STORY!

'Damnit. I really hurt him this time…' Sakura thought to herself, partly out of realization, partly guilt. "ARG! I should be dwelling on this!" she roared to the empty hospital room that had until recently held Naruto, now only holding the young kunoichi and the remains of what once was furniture. Gripping her throbbing head and sinking to the ground, she slowly muttered to her self, "he promised, he _promised_…" The tickle of tears streaked down her cheeks, causing her to dig the nails she'd spend over an hour to fix up into the soft skin of her own legs, 'this is why Sasuke-kun didn't want me, I'm weak. I was nothing but a burden to everyone.'

' "BULL SHIT! It's all that Naruto's fault! He **promised**!" ' screamed the voice of Inner Sakura. Though putting all the blame on Naruto tempted her to no ends; she knew that it was a lie.

"DAMNIT!" she brought her fist to the wall and succeeded in sending a spider-web of cracks along the wall. 'First I vent my rage on Naruto, now a defenseless wall. What's next a sleeping baby?' a sick section of her mind asked, she shook her head violently to dislodge the thoughts.

"Sakura?" asked a quiet voice from the doorway.

'Ino' Sakura thought bitterly, the last thing she needed now was someone else trying to sedate her rage with empathy. "What do you want Ino-pig?" her words left a feeling of bile in the back of her throat.

"Sakura…" the blonde kunoichi spoke without the costumed big fore-head comment.

'Oh yea… she liked Sasuke-kun too' the pink haired ninja remembered when the saddened eyes of her former friend looked down on her. "What do you want?" her tone was more tired than angry this time.

"I… I just came to tell you that Choji and Neji are going to pull through. I mean, I thought you might want to know," it was obvious that she was avoiding something, even after all these years Sakura knew she could read the pony-tail wearing kunoichi.

Sakura nodded in acknowledgement, but offered no other sign of hearing. Ino scowled slightly at the off handedness that the pink haired-freak displayed, "I came here to see how Naruto was doing; seeing as he's not here you might be able to tell me."

"Fine" her voice was curt and closing in nature, signifying the end of her restraint.

Ino frowned at the girl, then walked back to the door. "Sakura… you aren't the only one that cares for him. We are all upset that he wouldn't come back. Don't think that you're the only one hurt," with that said the blonde girl left the room with a slight stomp, slamming the door on her way out.

Sakura grabbed the nearest piece of debris, a section of a metal bed frame, and hurled it at the door. The metal pierced the wood with a sickly slicing sound, scaring a passing nurse nearly to death. "Stupid bitch…" she murmured to the air, pulling herself into a ball with her arms around her knees. "You weren't there… You didn't see him when he left… How could you know how it feels?"

"The same way that Naruto did when he made that promise to you," Kakashi answered from his position in the open window. Sakura bit her lip to stop her rage from flaring at her sensei, but left her eyes to glare to her heart's content. Kakashi's showing eye fell on the rubble scatter across the floor and through the door, "Naruto try and peek on you or something?"

Sakura wanted to scream her fury, let loose a string of curses, or even blow her aggression at the gray haired shinobi that was her teacher the same as she had done to Naruto; Kakashi already knew what happened yet he wanted her to say it. "He lied to me."

"Naruto? Lie? _Never_; you must have mistaken him for someone else," the showing eye curved upward, mocking Sakura to no ends. In less than a second's time the grey haired jonin managed to shift from his carefree happy-go-lucky attitude to the deadly serious tone, "Sakura, I doubt that you understand the depth of you actions today."

The words struck deep into her chest, leaving a pressure that nearly made her gag. 'Damnit… what is this?' she gripped at the pain, but no matter how hard she held the ache she could not disperse it. "What did you do to me?" her eyes locked with her sensei.

With the best possible look of confusion a single eye could give Kakashi asked, "What do you mean? I haven't done anything as of yet."

The sharp edges of Sakura's nails began the journey though the many intertwined layers of cloth in her shirt as she dug deeper at the pain, "You know exactly what you did Kakashi-sensei! What stupid jutsu did you use on me?" Sakura's free hand extended a finger pointed at the jonin's hidden nose.

Behind the blue mask Kakashi smiled, "That's no jutsu-"

"Then what the fuck is it?!" interrupted Sakura.

"_Heh_… for someone so smart you really are stupid," Kakashi's words held no sympathy or humor in them. "You are young; you'll find out sooner or later. You might even find out what true love is. Though the chances of that have dropped already…"

"I know what love is! Sasuke-kun is the only one in my heart! I don't care about Naruto!"

"Who ever mentioned Naruto?"

Sakura froze at her blunder; she'd lost any control she had over the conversation now. Kakashi had taken the wheel, and he was headed for bumpy ground. "It was obvious to what you were implying…" her voice no longer held the sure footing it once had.

Kakashi's eye rolled up as if into a mocking smirk, Sakura had to turn her eyes to the floor to keep from screaming ever insult she could think of at the stupid jonin, "Assumptions can sometimes be very different from what is true you know?" He paused. "You know you don't have to take this so personally…" Sakura's eyes shot back to her sensei; only to find him looking out the window with a lost look, "it isn't like he betrayed you personally, Orochimaru promised him power, and to him that's what matter first. After he killed his brother he could work at restarting his cl-" the rest of his sentence was cut of by the sharp sound of Sakura bringing her hand across his masked face.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW?!" To say Kakashi was taken back would be an understatement, not at the fact that she hit him, but that she actually _could_ hit him. "You might have lost everyone you care about, but you didn't have them **leave** you! They died; they didn't have a choice! SASUKE DID! He did…" Sakura's brief sign of strength collapsed around her, bringing her to her knees. "He did… he chose to leave. He chose to leave me behind…" her words were broken slightly by a sob or two.

Kakashi took this all in as Sakura continued to deteriorate further into a crying mess on the floor. Crouching down to her level he placed a comforting hand on her trembling shoulder, "I know it must feel like that, but he left everyone, you, Naruto… me."

"You don't understand!" the kunoichi shrieked, "I didn't just try to convince him to stay…" Kakashi visibly stiffened at the girl's words, his attention switched from comforting her to paying attention to every detail she said. "I… I. I just wanted to be with him. I didn't want him to leave me. I didn't want to be without him…" her words slipped into a long stream of incoherent words. But it wasn't like Kakashi needed to hear them to know what had happened; she'd offered to go with him. She would have chosen him over the village if it weren't for his stubborn nature. Now he was gone, and she was here in the village that she tried to leave.

"So that's why you're so bitchy… I just thought it was that time of the month," the jonin smirked as he effortlessly dodged an incoming projectile of debris. "So how exactly did doing _this_," he motions to the rubble amongst the room, "to Naruto play into all this?"

"His face…" she managed to spew out between wheezes.

"Something tells me there's more."

"They had the same face… for only a second," Sakura's sobs had ceased to a silent stream of tears. A confused face stared at the girl, giving a stare telling her to explain, "Naruto… he looked like Sasuke for a second. He had the same face that Sasuke had before he left. He was him…" Again Kakashi allowed his eye to edge her on, "When I saw him, Naruto, after he got back; he had that same face, the same expression Sasuke-kun had when he…"

"You were afraid?" the pink haired ninja nodded her head. "What might I ask, could scare you into doing… this?" The dulled pained in her chest erupted once more, spreading through her veins like liquid ice, and the pressure continued to build until it felt like it would pop. She let her legs slip to the side and position themselves into a formal fashion beneath her body, then allowed her hand to resume digging into the pain, as if bring external discomfort could remedy the situation. "Sakura?" Kakashi asks.

"When he came back, I knew Sasuke-kun had gotten away. I knew that Sasuke left, and it hurt. It hurt so bad… I couldn't breathe. And there was Naruto, giving me the same look… I know he and I aren't very close. But I swore that I could read him; he was going to leave as well, and I was afraid. Afraid of being left behind, afraid of being abandoned, afraid of being hurt. Even if he was just the idiot on our team, he was part of it, and I didn't want to be hurt anymore…"

Kakashi's face seemed to be stuck between sick and depressed, he rose to his full height with a dishearten sigh. "So you did this to keep everyone far enough away that it wouldn't hurt?" the girl in question made no motion to acknowledge that she heard other than renew her vigorous attempts at clutching the pain in her chest. The jonin couldn't form the words to express his disgust; he turned to the window and disappeared without a single word.

"He promised…. He promised…" muttered the pink haired genin as she felt the heaving sobs start to return.

A/N: please tell me how you liked it. I don't think i'm going to continue, but as you saw last time; what i plan and what i do are two different things. But yes, please review, even if it's just a 'yea i liked it.' or 'eh, it was ok'. if you feel the need to flame, add some constructive critisism (not that any of you lovely readers would flame anyone, but just incase). I actually like constructive critisism.

Special A/N: (incase anyone cares) if you didn't know this story was written mostly how i felt on my love life; and this saturday i found my Hinata - so yes, i'm thinking of writing another chapter just for the two love birds (or maybe Naru forgives/ w/e Sakura. I donno, i'll see more if I like how it goes when/if i start writing it)


	3. Family

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing! i'm poor! leave me alone already!

A/N: Ok so I lied again; here's chapter three. I wrote this because I felt like it just seemed to hang, no real ending. So here I am, and I wrote this to be the end of it all. So no matter what I will not, **_Will not_**, continue please don't ask. Cause I'd feel really bad, but I still wouldn't do it; cause I'm done with this story

Naruto's apartment was as it always had been, floor covered with various instant noodle containers and trash, sink full to the brim with dirty and used dishes, ninja gear thrown about in every possible direction, Hinata asleep in Naruto's arms on his messy bed. Yep; nothing out of the usual here. Naruto scooted closer in and placed his head in his favorite crook of Hinata's neck, right next to the edge of her jacket, with a tired sigh. He knew this was the woman he loved, the girl he'd die for and the ninja he'd live for. Yet a pull in his chest kept him from blissfully living 'happily ever after.'

Before he could interrogate himself as to what that sensation was, a teasing voice, "**Oh ho ho, fast aren't we?**"

"_Shut up you stupid fox!_" Naruto countered.

"**Growing defensive of your woman kit?**" Naruto choose to send waves of killing intent at the fox rather than reply. "**Fine, here's a little tip for you then; there's more than one type of love**," with a last snicker Kyubi retreated to the recesses of the seal.

"_Gasp! The fox has actually said something helpful. Who'd thought? ...what kind of advice is 'there's more than one type of love' anyways? _" the blonde emphasized his point by swinging his free arm in grand gestures.

"N-naruto-kun? Is something wrong?" ever since they'd started going out Naruto learned to read Hinata's emotions in her eyes, and right now concern filled them completely.

"No Hina-chan. I'm alright," the blonde shifted his free harm to scratch behind his head, closed his eyes and dawned his renowned grin, all to hide the guilt he held for lying to her.

It was a gloomy day. The clouds had refused to relinquish their grip on sky to the sun even though it had finished raining since last night, but today seemed gloomier than before. Naruto leaned back into the shape of the tree, receiving a quiet 'eep' at his movement. "Oh, sorry Hina-chan. You good?" he asked the white mass that lay on his shoulder.

"Yea… y-you just s-startled me a little," she answered into chest with a smile. Taking a deep breath of his scent Hinata called her excited nerves, "I'm glad I could spend a beautiful day like this with you N-naruto-kun."

"How so?" he blurted out, causing the Hyuga heir to jerk a little. "I meant the day! How's it beautiful I mean!" he quickly corrected.

Hinata's non-existent pupils returned to their normal non-existent size with a silent sigh of relief, "I mean, r-right after t-the rain it always s-seems so… clean, clear, nice…" Naruto blinked, reexamining the forest around him with confusion. "What do you think N-naruto-kun?" her voice was quiet, but clear.

"I donno…" his blue eyes locked on to the leaves above them, the shrubs below them, and the trees around him. "I kinda think it looks like someone's let the paints run and muddle the whole image a little." Hinata made no motion to move, made not a sound, or even changed her expression, but Naruto could tell he'd upset her some. "But it doesn't really matter what the day looks like to me, because I'm with the woman I love," he cooed into her ear; then leaned in with a brief kiss.

Hinata turned a deep hue of red, the color in which Naruto had name '**hiatari(1) red.' She loved it when he did stuff like that, it wasn't their first kiss; they'd had many just the same, but every time it made her heart skip and her cheeks overheat.**

**'This is what I've always wanted, love, attention, and recognition! So why am I not happy?!' Naruto's face and posture may seem perfectly content, but just beneath the surface his muscles were ablaze with energy and his stomach weighed down with some unseen lead. He slid his hand into Hinata's own and mentally swears 'I don't care what this feeling is; I love Hinata' he gives her hand a small squeeze, 'with all my heart.'**

Naruto sat miserably on top of the northern gate; three hours earlier team eight had left on a mission. He had yet to leave after he said good-bye to Hinata. "You look like someone just died," a voice from behind him says in a joking manor.

Naruto spun around to see the oldest Genin he had the 'pleasure' in knowing, Temari of the sand. Her hair pulled back in her usual fashion of four off shoots, her attire a relaxed version of what she wore when she saved Shikamaru, and of course her ungodly large fan was secured on her back as always. She was giving Naruto a kind of smirk that said 'you're pathetic.'

"What do you want?" his voice wasn't as tired as he was, just her being near brought up memories of the mission they had unknowingly worked together on.

Wordlessly she walked over beside the younger blonde, took a seat beside him, and ruffled his hair with a soft giggle. "You really shouldn't be so down kid," she said after a brief silence.

"And what makes you the expert on these things?" Naruto snapped.

Temari let loose a bark of a laugh that changed to a short fit of giggles, "expert? Hardly; I am the sister of Gaara though. If that doesn't give me some standing over who does and does not have reason to be depressed, what does?"

The young boy felt an icy chill run along his spine with Gaara's mentioning in the conversation; almost as if she'd named him as well under the list of demon containers. "He and I are different people…"

"Ain't that the truth," she exclaimed, giving the younger a hearty slap on the back. "I won't lie that I understand my little brother, or that I know the depth of his pain. What I do know is that in some way, he idolizes you," Naruto's scattered attention suddenly shot to the kunoichi. "He sees you, accepted, loved, and ambitious; I think he's jealous some what," her eyes had drifted to the horizon and allowed a distant expression to enter them. "You have someone to love, be happy for that."

Now it was his turn to turn his eyes away, staring intently at the patterns in the gate he sat on. "That's not… That isn't why I'm upset," he managed to spit out, leaving a vile taste in his mouth.

"Then why are you?" her voice had elevated from curious to annoyed.

"What do you care?" Naruto quickly turns his back on the other blonde.

His nerves were suddenly sent into overdrive when the sand-nin wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a hug. Not the loving grip that he shared with Hinata many times, nor the joyful hold he sometimes gave to those he considered friends; no this was the comforting embrace of someone who cared, not for the heart but for the person. "For the first time that I can remember I had a conversation with my youngest brother without him driving me away, threatening me with violent deaths, or attempted to squish me with his sand, and it's all thanks to you. Face it kid, Kankuro and I owe you for saving our brother from himself. You're family now."

Tears formed in Naruto's eyes, she hadn't spoken with spite as the villagers did, she wasn't angry he'd beaten Gaara, and she obviously wanted to help; it was all too much. He spun around in her grasp and spilled everything to her, from the start of team seven to the weight in his heart, his one friendly ear that he could tell all this to, Konohamaru was too young, it would be too weird to talk about this to Iruka or Tsunade, and Kakashi and Jiraiya would treat him like some kind of pervert. Temari proved to be a good listener, only breaking his rants to ask exactly who one of the people he was talking about was, or to ask why he hadn't beaten certain individuals into bloody pulps. At the end Naruto felt both physically and mentally drained, but relieved none the less; while Temari just was teetering between upset and shocked. The two just sat there for a while, content at the revelations between them. A small portion of the weight on Naruto's heart seemed to fade away; he reached up to clutch at the remaining bit in hopes to coax it out.

Temari rose to her feet and turned back towards the forest of concrete, "You know, you and Gaara aren't that different really," Naruto secretly smiled to himself at this. "I bet after a few hours of sleep he'd be just like you; well you know minus the evil demon eating his soul and all…" her face held a sad smile as she lost herself in memories. "Gaara… he told me a little while ago that… that," she fumbled with her words from the pain they brought her, "he told me about a similar feeling that you have now. He… he said, 'when the children would run from me, it hurt like nothing else; but as long as I had Yashamaru I could deal with it, because I knew that he cared for me. But I still remember the gash he left on me when he betrayed me…' Our uncle was ordered by the Kazakage, our father, to kill the monster he'd created. Gaara was only six years old; and he killed Yashamaru out of fear. He still feels the pain from that." Temari had brought her hand up to her forehead as if the kajin Gaara wore was on her head as well; a small trickle of tears slipped down her cheek.

Naruto looked at the kunoichi, unsure on how to comfort this new addition to his precious people. He chose to place a firm grip on her shoulder and speak in the calmest voice he could muster, "I'm new to this whole family thing, but if there's anything I can do…"

Temari looked over her shoulder at her new brother, "live happily. Live for yourself and for Gaara; hopefully he can find it in himself to allow people pass that barrier that I let him build up for the last seven." She placed her hand on Naruto's mat of hair and gave it a good ruffle before mounting her fan, taking care to wave once she was stable in flight.

Naruto returned the wave with his masking grin; behind the shining eyes his mind was connecting a series of webs together. 'Live happily? For myself and Gaara?' when the last trace of his onee-chan disappeared he let the mask fall from his sullen face. He knew what he needed to do, but that didn't mean he would like doing it.

Naruto looked around at the pitiful state the room was in. The walls were caked with layers of grime from only god knows what, sheets and bedding alike were torn and rip as if by an animal, the floor was little more than a landfill, there were deep gashes randomly scattered amongst furniture walls floor and ceiling, and topping this all off was the myriad of clothing in every direction. He feared venturing in too far after his sandal was pierced by a hidden kunai, but he had something that he couldn't shrink away from.

There! He saw a slight shift in the folds of a bed spread. Taking a calming breath he turned to face the lump, "Sakura…" The lump quivered once, then attempted to burrow deeper into the dieing bed. He took a step closer and repeated "Sakura…" The same reaction. Growing irritated at her actions he closes the distance between them with a few short steps, places his hand on the bed and hisses, "hey Sakura; I need to talk to you."

"Why?" the blankets asked; a small spark of anger shot through his body. He wasn't ready to forgive, not yet.

"Why what?" his hand pulled away from the quivering lump, his muscles twitching with quite rage.

The pile of blankets slid down off the pink haired kunoichi, her face had paled and puffed from lack of sun and abundance of tears, the fine shortly cut hair was now matted and clumped, and her eyes resembled Kurenai's in color; Naruto had to suppress a wave of bile. "Why are you here? Why do you want to talk to me? Why don't you hate me?!" her green eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

'I do hate you! You don't deserve my words!' the words formed on his lips, but fell short when he opened his mouth to say them. Something deep inside him refused to allow him to comply with the burning desire to tear her confidence to shreds. Damnit! "We need to talk," he repeated with a little more tense tone.

Sakura rose to a sitting position and cast her eyes at the gap between her and the boy she thought she'd pushed away forever. "How can you just sit there after what I did to you?"

"Years of practice," another invisible stabbed into her chest. He watched with a sadistic smirk as she cringed at his words; the weight in his chest responded by doubling itself. Submitting to the stupid weight he started again, "I miss it. The three of us I mean; doing missions, training, goofing off, all of it." Sakura lifted her head to see Naruto's face in a stern face; probably the first time she'd seen him not wearing a grin to end all grins. "I just wanted to say… I know how it felt when he left."

"You have no idea." Sakura had managed to pull herself into a tight ball as she had done in the hospital, "you don't have a clue how much he hurt me."

"Oh, how so," a rare wry tone wrapped itself around him.

Her hand reached up to hold the void in her heart, "he left you, but he abandoned me. I tried! I begged for him to stay; when he wouldn't… I… I asked him to take me with him." A mix of shame and sadness flooded her face; her eyes remained locked with the blue pair in front of her however.

Naruto was silent for a moment, to allow the words to sink in. Once the information had been stored in the relatively small sympathy folder of his mind he spoke up, "I'm sure that must of hurt, but he hurt me too." Sakura looked skeptical at the blonde, "I didn't see you coming in with a chidori sized hole in your chest."

Sakura's eyes widened a hair; she'd forgotten the small fact that Naruto had fought Sasuke to get him to come home; risking death in the attempt. She shook her head to suppress the memories again, "He was everything to me! I loved him!"

"In a spam of less than twenty four hours I lost one-third of those who were precious to me," this seemed to get Sakura's attention. "Iruka, Tsunade, Kakashi, Jiriya, Sasuke, and you; guess which third I'm referring too." Again they took turns looking at the other inquisitively while the other turned their eyes to the floor or one of the walls.

Eventually Naruto took the initiative and broke the silence, "Sakura, I need your help…"

Hinata broke out into a swift jog when the walls of Konoha came into sight, leaving the rest of team eight behind.

"She's seemed more 'uppity' since we started back home hasn't she?" asked Kurenai with a mother-like smile.

Kiba barked a laugh with Akumaru's accompaniment, "well she would have reason wouldn't she?" Kurenai shot him a questioning stare; "Uzumaki," he answered.

"What else is new? She's always eager to see him, but usually she stays with us until we get to the gates," the red-eyed kunoichi twisted her brow into a confused look.

Kiba at this started howling up laughter like no tomorrow, leaving Shino to explain. "She's caught him now," short sweet and too the point; that was Shino.

"What do you mean _caught_?" the red slits of their teacher's eyes burned down at the two.

"Caught you ask?" Kiba had ceased his joyous fit and began to tease Kurenai with a grin to give Naruto a run for his money. Kurenai nodded, not letting the glare down for a second. "What my ever so articulate friend Shino here means is; she bagged him. They've been going out for a little while now."

Kurenai's abnormally colored eyes burst wide open. Taking the young dog boy by his shirt she thrashed him and yelled directly into his ear, "She got him! Why didn't you tell me?! Oh my Kami! When? Where? How? Why? DETAILS CHILD!"

During the sequence of questions Shino had managed to slip away in route for his home. "Traaaaiiiitooorrr!" Kiba called out at the bug user. Shino smiled beneath his high collar.

Hinata trudged along the long hallways through the Hyuga mansion in a haze. 'Where was Naruto-kun' she asked herself, 'he wasn't at his home, the ramen shop, the Hokage's office, he wasn't allowed any missions yet, and no one had seen him around town for a long time.' Hinata had traveled around all of Konoha to find her Naruto-kun, but to no avail. She did however enlist a small squad of people who promised to let her know if the saw him; Iruka, Tsunade, Konohamaru and his squad, Lee, Choji, Kiba, and most surprisingly Temari and Kankuro.

She sighed to herself and headed into her room with a sense of disappointment, she missed her Naruto-kun. She fell onto her bed with a exhausted groan, only to have a snide voice hiss at her; "what's got _you_ so down?"

Neji stood at the entry way to her room smiling as if he was the cat who caught the canary. "Lonely are we?" he dangled a sheet of paper between two fingers, long and messy streaks littered one side, characteristic to Naruto's writing.

"G-give it here!" she immediately jumped from the bed and engaged in a childish attempt to retrieve the paper while Neji held it just out of reach.

"Not a chance Hinata-sama; god knows what that monster would do to-" the rest of his to-be angsty rant was cut off by a powerful gentle fist to the gut.

Hinata followed this up by jumping the crouching figure and grabbing the paper mid-air, running at top speed for the exit. She was nearly to the slums Naruto lived in before she stopped and read the note. It was directions around the Hokage monuments. 'Does Naruto want me to go?' She took to the roofs with all the speed she could muster, following the directions to the dot as they wound their way around the base of the mountain, ending at a small clearing of lilac flowers in the middle of the forest. "W-what's this?"

"About a week's worth of work scrunched up into a day by my guess," chuckled a voice from above her.

"N-n-naruto-kun?" her pale eyes met the blue pools of her love's, "NARUTO-KUN!" Hinata leaped into Naruto's waiting arms with teary eyes. This is what she missed more than anything, just being with him.

"Hey there," he tightens his grip around her and brings her closer to him, "I missed you". The two just stand there, in each others arm, letting the world go by without the slightest care. A slight pull at Hinata's side let her know that Naruto was trying to lead her somewhere, she submitted and followed him up the side of a tree before sitting down on the same limb he'd been on before he'd hopped down to greet her. "Can you look for a second?" he asked, pointing out over to the field they'd just left. She followed his hand and saw what she couldn't see from the ground, inside the mass of lilac flowers a message had been cut out that read 'If only a week I could live, this last week is the one I'd choose. I love Hinata.'

"Oh Naruto-kun…"

Just outside the flower message stood Ino and Sakura panting for breath while trying to remove multiple petals from each other's hair. Ino gave Sakura a look and leaned in to her ear, "not that I'm complaining or anything, but what made you change your mind about Naruto? Why start helping him now?"

Sakura's cheeks deepen a slight bit, "because I've learned what family is; it's not just those whose blood you share. It's those you care for no matter what, and Naruto's got one of the biggest families I've ever seen." The pink haired kunoichi smiled to herself as she watched the two love-birds kiss, "I'm just glad that I'm still a part of it…"

Ino cocked her head to the side and grinned an all knowing grin, "he isn't that bad after all is he?"

"No he's not."

"Do you regret it?" the blonde asked with a slightly sad tone, "do you regret pushing him away?"

Sakura paused, carefully thinking through her answer, "I can't say that I'm proud of myself for doing what I did. I guess it's lucky that things turned out the way they did." Ino nodded to her renewed friend. "I hope that Hinata will become part of this family soon. We need her…"

"_He_ needs her."

"Yea."

The two silently get up and leave the loving couple their privacy. Locked in embrace, over a field of lilacs, staring at the setting sun and each other's eyes. For the first time in that weak, Naruto felt unburdened by his heart, this was love; he had Hinata, his friends, and now a family.

Notes:1 ok Hinata means in the sun, hiartari is a pun on that meaning exposed to the sun; kinda like a sunburn. (for those of you who didn't go 'oh!' I'm referring to blushing)

A/N2: ok so this is the author notes that +90 of you will skip over, and that's fine this really isn't that important. Well it is for me, but not you, the average readers. I'm writing this so I can dedicate this to the love of my life, seeing as this is our one month aniversery. I wouldn't have been able to write this if it hadn't been for you. (holds hand up as if it held an Oscar) This is for you! I Love You! Rin


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